Golly! Enormous Government Spending Goes to Well-Connected Companies!

I wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't been in the New York Times, but there it was: an editorial about cronyism in Katrina relief spending! Who would've thought?

Their newspaper really isn't even fit for toilet paper (it somehow causes people to contort into this position). They were one of the first to call for a massive federal program and that's what they got. There is simply no way manage, with any hint of efficiency, the $200 billion promised to that region.

According to the 2000 census, there were 188,251 households in New Orleans. Two hundred billion dollars (or a contribution of over $3 from every single person on the entire planet) calculates to over $1 million per New Orleans family. What in the hell are we going to do in New Orleans that would require $1 million per family? It's unconscionable that our government could agree to such a large sum, for the dubious cause of rebuilding a city below sea level likely to be affected in the future.

So much will be wasted because the prices will simply inflate to match the money that comes in. It's said that Congress doesn't know the difference between a million and a billion, and that stems from dealing with such huge sums all the time. Do you think the agency chairs in charge of contracting out reconstruction work will dutifully protect against waste in the level of hundreds of thousands when billions are coming in? A $100,000 check (more than I'll ever hold on one slip of paper) is 0.00005% of the promised amount; do you think every one of the 2 million checks for $100,000 each will be given due consideration? Are you kidding me, NYT?

I guess I'm glad something is written about the contracts and accounts in the aftermath of Katrina, and surely more should follow. But if it was unexpected, the editorial board is certainly the dumbest group of adults in the history of the press, and especially because their sleaze created the situation.